Chapter 481: Owen’s Choice
When Kim rejoined them, with Heather’s dagger next to her sword, Eliin didn’t say anything. She wanted to try and comfort Kim, but she wasn’t sure how. Kim didn’t seem troubled by it, but Elin could tell somehow. She wasn’t sure how, just that Kim wasn’t alright with what Elin knew that she’d done. That while she appeared to be like she always had been, she was troubled, if nothing else.
It pained Elin to see her like that, but she also could tell that there wasn’t anything she could do or say. Especially since she wasn’t able to think of anything that could be said or done. All she could do was hope that she’d either be able to come up with something on that matter or that something would be made apparent to her that would somehow help. Or maybe Kim would open up to her and talk to her about that, giving her a way she could be there for Kim other than being able to say or do the right thing to help, even though she strongly doubted that would happen. Not with how Kim typically had been.
"So, that’s out of the way now?" Elwin asked, surprising Elin with how callous he was about the situation.
She wasn’t worried about how Kim would react, but rather about how little he regarded the life of another person. Even if that person was out to kill the rest of them, they still deserved as much respect as any life does. Especially when it ends because of some choice they made that didn’t benefit them as much as they had thought it would.
Her father had had to deal with some situations like that while she was still growing up, but she’d at least had time to think, and sometimes discuss the matter with her tutors, about the implications of the action her father had taken. It wasn’t quite the same as this situation, but she considered the principal of the matter to be the same.
Although, she was still a little confused why Kim wanted to do that without everyone around her. In regards to Owen, she understood why, but otherwise she felt like it was a bit of a mystery on why everyone else had to leave. Except Sonya, but Elin figured it was because they hadn’t quite tied Heather to her back and Sonya didn’t seem the kind to just ’come back’ for Heather if she could help it.
"You’re done with your execution, right?" Owen demanded before Kim had a chance to respond in any way. "I can’t believe you did that. He was a living person!"
"Who would have killed us if he had a chance to recover," Elmo retorted, looking like he was surprised to have spoken himself. As it is, he even continued despite that surprised. "Every person has a right to kill if it’s to protect their own life or the lives of others, if they have reason to believe that killing would remove the danger they were in."
Owen looked at Elmo, as if he disgusted him, which Elin supposed was an understandable reaction considering Owen’s stance on the matter and Elmo’s vocal support of it. Elin was just glad that she herself hadn’t shared her thoughts on the matter. She certainly wasn’t sure how she’d react to Owen’s reaction if it was directed towards her. Or Kim’s reaction of that, for that matter.
"Enough of this," Kim ordered, her tone cutting off whatever Owen might have said in response to Elmo’s statement, assuming he would continue arguing the point. "Harold’s dead and there’s nothing that any of us can do about that now. Whether you agree with us that killing him was necessary for our survival or not is irrelevant at this time. What matters is what we’re going to do now. If you want to leave our group, that’s your choice. We’re likely to encounter Stanley and his group, possibly sooner now, but if you don’t want to fight him, then your best choice is to leave here and head away from the dungeon. If you’re still with us, then we’ll need to agree to disagree on the matter and move on from it, okay?"